Attorney David Couch of Little Rock said the number of lawsuits forced into arbitration is on the rise. | (Photo of Couch by Jason Burt; Fayetteville Health and Rehab Center courtesy Google Street View)

More companies are eagerly adding language to contracts and terms of agreements that require any disputes that arise to be handled in arbitration. Once there, the complaint is decided by an arbitrator rather than in the courts with a judge or jury deciding the case, a procedure that one proponent described as “simpler, fairer, faster.”